Cape Town - The Grow Africa initiative, aimed at boosting agriculture on the continent, announced on Tuesday that it had secured a commitment from 200 member companies to invest $10-billion in the sector in 12 African countries.
On the eve of the World Economic Forum on Africa taking place in Cape Town from June 3 to June 5, the Grow Africa Partnership released its latest figures which represent a 40-percent increase over 2013 commitment levels.
In a statement, it said: “Investment continues to increase: in 2013 and 2014, investments totalling $1.8 billion have led to the creation of 58 000 jobs, bringing improvements in services and market opportunities to 8.6 million smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of the sector’s production capacity. Around $300-million of staple and cash crops were sourced from smallholders in 2014 as a result of the investments.
“The number of companies making investment commitments within the Grow Africa Partnership and New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition almost doubled, to 210,” it said.
“Over half of the investment commitments come from domestic agribusiness and service companies, which benefit from Grow Africa’s focus on convening and facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen inclusive agricultural value chains.”
Grow Africa released the figures at the Grow Africa Investment Forum in Cape Town as the first stage of a joint reporting process for Grow Africa and the New Alliance, on behalf of the African Union.
Progress was tracked against 299 private-sector investment commitments, 200 government policy improvements and $6-billion of funding commitments by international development partners to support improvements in the enabling environment.
Stakeholder groups in each country would now review the data on progress and challenges to define further joint actions that would drive inclusive agricultural growth it added. A report would be available in late 2015.
Grow Africa’s founding partners - the African Union (AU), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and the World Economic Forum - announced the transition of the Grow Africa Secretariat from the World Economic Forum to an African base, hosted by the Nepad Agency. The Partnership was founded in 2011 to enable countries to realise the potential of the agriculture sector for economic growth and job creation, particularly among farmers, women and youth.
The partners also announced the appointment of 16 senior representatives covering different stakeholder groups to the Grow Africa Steering Committee - the formal governance body that would direct the partnership’s strategy and the work of the Grow Africa Secretariat.
“Incremental improvement will not enable us to achieve the (Malabo Declaration) goals set by African countries for 2025. We need a transformation that requires the coordinated efforts of a vast number of partners. That is why we need large-scale platforms for public-private sector collaboration such as Grow Africa,” said Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the Nepad Planning and Co-ordinating Agency.
“We stand at a pivotal moment of opportunity to capitalise on an enormous body of collective learning to foster successful public-private cooperation. We must seize this opportunity to deliver on the promise of African agriculture to drive sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the continent,” said Sarita Nayyar, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum.
More than 1 250 participants are due to take part in the 25th World Economic Forum on Africa 2015 with the theme “Then and Now: Reimagining Africa’s Future”.
ANA